The interior of The Island restaurant. Picture taken by Jett-le Tran Le.
The Island is a Caribbean style restaurant. The address of the restaurant is 118 Ferry Street. The restaurant has pickup and dine in. They also have a website which is www.theislandmalden.com and their phone number is 781-605-2212. The Island first opened on April 23rd. TheIslandMalden is also there username on social media for Instagram and Facebook.
Chantal Quessa is the owner and founder of The Island and the reason why she opened up the restaurant is because she “loves cooking and it has alway been [her] passion.” She said she “grew up cooking, [with her] mother and cooked for [her] whole family.”
Quessa said that “as far as [she] can remember, [she] always held a sunday family dinner at [her] house with all of [her] family and friends.” She said that she “spends the whole day cooking because [she loves] feeding people.”
Quessa said that “the reason why the restaurant is called “The Island” is because of her son Jeremiah. She said that she originally wanted to “name the restaurant after a statue in Haiti.” “[They] had many different names [for the restaurant] and Jeremiah’s name won.”
Quessa said that she decided to open the restaurant in Malden because she “lived in Malden for 20 plus years and [she] wants to keep the business where [she] lives.”
The restaurant idea has been in the works for years and “wanted to open the restaurant ever since [she] had her kids but couldn’t because of [her] responsibilities. Now that [they] are in college [she] can finally do things for [herself].”
The Island restaurant is different from other restaurants because of the decor in it. The restaurants theme has a relaxing mood and vibrant place. Quessa said that she “wanted to give the restaurant a Caribbean vibe instead of just a Haitian restaurant.”
Quessa said that they “had a lot of food on the menu, but since the kitchen is so small [they] had to take off some of the food items.” She said that “once things [start picking up she] can get a bigger kitchen and can add things to the menu. The things [they] will add, are things that the customers are asking for, like oxtail, curry, and more vegetarian dishes.”
Quessa said that ways “[they] can get themselves out to people is through social media.” She said that “[they] tried to go to a radio station to promote themselves, [they] are trying different ways to get [themselves] out there.”